How to add an add-on vehicle to a FiveM server

An add-on vehicle is a vehicle with its own model name that is loaded next to the stock GTA V vehicles instead of replacing one of them. On FiveM it lives in a server resource: the server sends the files to every player who joins, so nobody installs anything by hand.

	Add-on	Replace
Model name	New (for example mycar)	An existing one (for example sultan)
Stock vehicle	Stays in the game	Is swapped out for every player
Meta files	Needs its own vehicles.meta entry	Can reuse the stock entry
Typical use	Server cars, shops, job vehicles	Visual swaps of traffic cars

1. Create a folder for the resource inside the server resources folder.
2. Put the .yft and .ytd files in a stream subfolder.
3. Put the .meta files in a data subfolder.
4. Write an fxmanifest.lua that lists each meta under files and in a data_file line.
5. Add ensure <folder name> to server.cfg and restart the server.
6. Spawn the vehicle with its model name.

Each meta file also has its own guide, linked from the table in the next section.

An add-on vehicle is two groups of files: binary model files that go in stream/, and XML meta files that tell the game what the model is and how it behaves. The game only insists on the model, its textures and a vehicles.meta entry. The other metas add handling, colors, tuning and seats.

File	Folder	What it does	Needed?
mycar.yft, mycar_hi.yft	stream	The 3D model. See vehicle model files.	Yes
mycar.ytd	stream	The texture dictionary.	Yes
vehicles.meta	data	Registers the model: name, type, layout, flags. See vehicles.meta explained.	Yes
handling.meta	data	Physics: mass, power, grip, suspension. See handling.meta explained.	Only if the vehicle has its own handlingId
carvariations.meta	data	Color combinations, mod kit, light and siren settings.	Recommended
carcols.meta	data	Custom tuning kits, sirens and light setups. See carvariations and carcols.	Only for custom tuning parts or sirens
vehiclelayouts.meta	data	Custom seats, entry points and animations. See vehiclelayouts.meta explained.	Only for custom seating or animations

Vehicle packs made for FiveM already come as a resource with these folders. A vehicle downloaded as a single-player mod usually comes as a dlc.rpf archive. The same files are inside, but they have to be extracted and arranged into the layout below.

Tool	Used for
CodeWalker	Browsing the game's archives, viewing models, and exporting stock .meta files to copy an entry from.
Blender with the Sollumz add-on	Importing, editing and exporting vehicle models (.yft) and texture dictionaries (.ytd).
Any text editor	Editing the .meta files and fxmanifest.lua, which are plain text.

The fastest way to write metas for a new vehicle is to copy the entries of the stock vehicle most similar to it and change the names.

To make or change the model itself, see how to make a FiveM vehicle in Blender with Sollumz. Turning a single-player dlc.rpf into a resource is in converting a single-player car mod to a FiveM add-on, and the two tools are compared in CodeWalker vs Sollumz.

A vehicle resource is one folder inside the server resources folder with an fxmanifest.lua, a stream folder and a folder for the metas. The folder name is the resource name. The meta folder can have any name, and most people call it data.

resources/
  mycar/
    fxmanifest.lua
    data/
      handling.meta
      vehicles.meta
      carcols.meta
      carvariations.meta
    stream/
      mycar.yft
      mycar_hi.yft
      mycar.ytd

Files in stream/ are picked up by file name, so they are not listed in the manifest. Meta files get no such shortcut. Each one has to be declared in the manifest.

The manifest declares every meta file twice: once in files, so the server sends it to players, and once in a data_file line, so the game loads it as the right kind of data. Both are documented in the FiveM resource manifest reference.

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'gta5'

files {
  'data/handling.meta',
  'data/vehicles.meta',
  'data/carcols.meta',
  'data/carvariations.meta',
}

data_file 'HANDLING_FILE'          'data/handling.meta'
data_file 'VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE'  'data/vehicles.meta'
data_file 'CARCOLS_FILE'           'data/carcols.meta'
data_file 'VEHICLE_VARIATION_FILE' 'data/carvariations.meta'

• fx_version 'cerulean' and game 'gta5' are required at the top of every FiveM manifest.
• A meta that is in data_file but missing from files never reaches the player, so the vehicle will not exist for them.
• The type string must match the file: HANDLING_FILE for handling.meta, VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE for vehicles.meta, and so on. The full list is in the data_file reference for vehicles.

Add one line with the resource folder name to server.cfg and restart the server. ensure starts the resource, or restarts it when it is already running.

ensure mycar

On a running server you can type refresh and then ensure mycar in the server console instead of a full restart. If a player who was already connected does not see the vehicle, have them reconnect.

The spawn name is the modelName from vehicles.meta, which is also the name of the .yft file. Use it with any admin menu or vehicle spawn command. If the server has no spawn command yet, this client script adds /car mycar:

RegisterCommand('car', function(_, args)
  local model = GetHashKey(args[1] or 'mycar')
  if not IsModelInCdimage(model) then return print('model not found') end
  RequestModel(model)
  while not HasModelLoaded(model) do Wait(0) end
  local ped = PlayerPedId()
  local veh = CreateVehicle(model, GetEntityCoords(ped), GetEntityHeading(ped), true, false)
  SetPedIntoVehicle(ped, veh, -1)
  SetModelAsNoLongerNeeded(model)
end)

The name the game shows for the vehicle comes from gameName. It is a text label, so without a label the HUD shows the raw key. Register one from a client script:

-- client script: readable name for <gameName>MYCAR</gameName>
AddTextEntry('MYCAR', 'My Car GT')

Most add-on vehicles that fail to load have a name that does not match between two files. Each pair on a line below must be identical:

stream/mycar.yft                 <modelName>mycar</modelName>
stream/mycar.ytd                 <txdName>mycar</txdName>
handling.meta <handlingName>     <handlingId>MYCAR</handlingId>
carvariations.meta <modelName>   <modelName>mycar</modelName>
vehiclelayouts.meta <Name>       <layout>LAYOUT_STANDARD</layout>
carcols.meta <kitName>           carvariations.meta <kits><Item>

If the vehicle spawns but something is off (no textures, wrong physics, no tuning parts), go through the vehicle troubleshooting guide.

No. A vehicle resource has no script that depends on ESX, QBCore or QBox, so the steps above are the same on every framework. The framework only comes in when the vehicle should be sold in a dealership or stored in a garage, which is covered in adding a custom vehicle to ESX, QBCore or QBox.

The Coil S-Cooter is a working example of this layout: a stream folder with the model, textures and animation dictionaries, and a data folder with handling, vehicles, carvariations, vehiclelayouts and clip sets, all loaded through data_file lines with no script.